NILOTIC NEGROES 



793 



hut until the child begins to cut 

 its teeth. The mother does not go 

 ■out to cultivate for nine days after 

 the birth. If a woman has had 

 two children previously who have 

 died, she follows the same ceremony 

 as- that described among the Bantu 

 Kavirondo. When the child has been 

 brought back by an old woman, it 

 is redeemed by the father, who then 

 bores the lobe of the right ear and 

 inserts an ear-ring of brass wire. 

 The child is thenceforth called "Owiti," 

 if a boy ; if a girl. " Awiti," mean- 

 ing " the child that has been thrown 

 away." The old woman who picks up 

 the child is regarded as its foster- 

 mother. Twins are considered lucky, 

 though their -arrival is attended by 

 a good many ceremonies and by pro- 

 pitiatory dances which are of an 

 •obscene nature. 



When a person dies, the corpse is 

 immediately taken out of the house. 

 If it be a woman, her brothers-in-law 

 dig the grave in the verandah of the 

 house. The corpse is buried on its 

 left side with the hand under the 

 head. In the case of a woman's death, 

 her relatives and friends come and 

 wail. Her husband presents each 

 clan that attends with a goat. The 



mourners stay for three days. The hut in which a person has died is used 

 for a month. The neighbours then meet together and drink beer, and 

 the house is broken down. Upon the death of a man his brother digs 

 his grave, and he is buried in the house of his first wife, if she is still 

 living. .If she is dead, he is buried in the verandah of his own house. 

 Men only wail for one day. After that only the women wail, at first 

 for three days, and then at dawn for fifteen days. 



As a sign of mourning the women wear a string of banana fibre round 

 the forehead. They also wear a black tail' fringed with white strings for 

 about a month. Others smear themselves with white earth. Relatives of 



437- 



A MEDICINE MAX KKOM NTAKACH, SOUTH 

 SIDE OF KAVIKONIX) BAT 



